In conventional railways, such a trial has been achieved that when a failure occurs in a preceding train, an efficient fail-safe property for subsequent trains is ensured, and the fail-safe property is introduced as a cost-effective method.
As means for solving this problem, a conventional technique described in Patent Literature 1 mentioned below is constituted as follows. An in-vehicle control device has a function of detecting a position of a train, and transmits detected train position information to a ground side via a radio communication unit. A general ground-side control device having a ground-side radio device and a ground control device is installed on the ground side. The ground-side radio device receives the train position information transmitted from the radio communication unit, and the ground control device determines a permitted travel position, which is a critical position for the train to travel safely.
More specifically, the ground control device includes a train travel controller. When a failure is detected in position information of a preceding train, the train travel controller obtains the permitted travel position by subtracting a position detection error of another train for which a permitted travel position is to be determined, a position detection error of the preceding train, and a distance which the preceding train may retreat from the position of the preceding train to control an interval between the trains. As a result, the conventional technique described in Patent Literature 1 ensures an efficient fail-safe property with respect to subsequent trains even if a failure occurs in the train obstructing a track ahead and establishes the fail-safe property by a cost-effective method.